CNOOC chairman confident Nexen deal can be completed by year-end

Cnooc Ltd., China’s biggest offshore oil and natural gas producer, said it’s confident its proposed $15.1 billion takeover of Canada’s Nexen Inc. will be completed by the end of the year.

“We are fully confident of a successful transaction,” Chairman Wang Yilin said at a meeting held as part of the 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing today. “We expect the deal will be done by the end of 2012.”

Canada extended its review of state-owned Cnooc’s bid for the second time on Nov. 2, resetting the deadline to Dec. 10 and citing the need for a thorough review.

“We think this is normal,” Wang said November 9. “It’s such a big acquisition.”

A takeover of Nexen would add around 200,000 barrels a day, or more than 70 million barrels a year to Cnooc’s output. The Beijing-based company last month raised its 2012 net production target as much as 1.5% to 245 million barrels.